Missions Update - Peru / Spring 2009
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2009

For many of us, Wednesday is the hardest day for our week here in Peru. At the end of today, we know that we have been here longer than we have left to be here. Medications are running low, time is running out and we are a bit emotional about not getting a chance to reach the many that we came to serve here. But Wednesday is also a good day. We have had a chance to get into a rhythm and the hidden Spanish words deep in our memory banks is now flowing from our lips once again.

Today has been a good day for me in the wonderful world of pharmacy high on the hill in Collique. I got a chance to council patients flying mostly on my own. I still have basic broken Spanish terms to explain the medication, but for the most part, the patients and I are able to understand each other. In times when their words are beyond my understanding, or my terms are too basic to get the message across, I get help. My favorite is when the other patients in line are the ones providing the help. They will take my terms and put them in a broader explanation for the patients and then look back at me and ask if that was right. I love that!

We have medications here to treat the majority of our needs for the patients here, but ever so often we have a need to which our first choice medication is not available. We needed ear drops for a patient but only had eye drops. It was the same medication that we would use for the ear infection, but was packaged to be eye drops. I counseled the patient’s mother and gave her the medication for her son. In my broken Spanish, I explained that an eye drop may be used for the eye or the ear. An ear drop is only for the eye, but eye drops may be used for both. She expressed that she understood. I was excited that I was able to get the message across and relieve her concern without a translator. We have had many amazing experiences I refer to as “we MacGyvered it”. For example, empty water bottles make great spacers for asthma medications for children that are unable to work an inhaler. I can’t wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow!

TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2009

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2009

“You have to be careful about eating a guinea pig because it looks a lot like a rat…in fact, if you’re eating one you need to go back to the kitchen and have them show you the tail.” That was the best advice we got today and even though we had chicken for dinner, they are words to live by.

We started the day continuing our project of building an outhouse for Repita, who is a cancer survivor and mother of 5 children. When we started the project, they had only a toilet bottom they’d found with no seat and no tank. It was surrounded by sticks and tarps and a few plastic bags to try to provide some privacy. We began by tearing it down and fixing the sewage pipes further down the line. Then we set some posts and dug out a lot of rocks. At some point, Jesse and Tom went down the hill to get some supplies and some more water and Erin stayed behind to watch the stuff and catch his breath. Repita came out and saw Erin sitting in the shade and offered to go buy him some water. She doesn’t have enough money to get their house hooked up to the civic water supply and they have to depend on neighbors to get water in buckets and use it for drinking, bathing, cooking, and washing dishes, and yet she was going to spend her money to buy him some bottled water. The people of Collique are showing us remarkable hospitality and teaching us a lot about the gracious humility of receiving help and we are learning a lot about the blessings of giving and receiving.

We’ve made good progress on our little outhouse and are adding a shower next to the toilet. Tomorrow, we hope to finish the roof and install a tank with a staircase so the children will be able to pour water into the tank and then use it for bathing and going to the bathroom. In the afternoons, the children all come to the site to watch and offer their help. They follow the bus down the street waiving wildly and telling us they’ll see us tomorrow. It feels good to be able to tell them we’ll see them in the morning, but we know that Friday will come and we’ll have to say a longer good-bye. Although this trip will end, the work continues and the love we’ve shared will echo into eternity.

SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2009

Arms outstretched in huge hugs, all the Operacion San Andres children welcomed our team with a song about the joy of belonging to a family - a family in Christ! What joy we feel to return to this family in Christ in Peru we come to serve twice a year. Everyone in Collique seems much happier and healthier now than they were at the beginning of our ministry here five years ago. Eight-year-old Nataly, whose birth defects had condemned her to a life as a cripple, walks very well after two surgeries. Many other children who struggled with malnutrition and neglect are much healthier now.

This is indeed a country of paradoxes. It seems we are on a different planet, yet we are still in Houston's same time zone. It is a humid desert; it never rains yet the air is so heavy with mist that towels never dry! Our hotel is five blocks from the coast but we can barely see the ocean because of the polluted air. Being surrounded by mountains sounds like a beautiful setting, but the mountains are only dirt with no vegetation - not beautiful! The grueling three hours on a bus ride every day, the choking pollution and the poverty never change. The rotting teeth. the alcoholism, the chronic high blood pressure, the diabetes and the intestinal diseases that we see are ever-present.. But faith, hope, trust and optimism are growing. Preti, our Peruvian psychologist, is confronting many problems with verbal and physical abuse in the community.

We are foreigners, yet we have become a part of a community of the Peruvian residents of Collique and also the team of Peruvians who serve them at Operacion San Andres. We also have forged deep bonds with our other team members, including our twelve newest members from South Main Baptist of Pasadena who are our construction team. Would you like to form deeper bonds with the family of South Mainers you,ve known for years? Travel abroad!

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2009

Hotel Señorial, Lima
Daniel Alcazar-Roman

I arrived in Lima yesterday at 3 a.m. The city was dark, cool and a thick fog covered most of the city. After resting a few hours, I met Sylvia who took me shopping for lunch snacks, bottle water and teaching supplies to use during the week.

This trip will be a bit different for me. Next Wednesday, instead my usual job as the person that helps patients find their way in and out of the OSA clinic (a.k.a. the clinic bouncer), I will be providing teacher training for a school in the area. During this training we will be discussing the latest research on student learning and best practices in assessment and grading.

I am very excited about this opportunity to connect with educators of the community. This is another step that we are taking to build a stronger relationship with the schools so that the children of Collique would receive a better education. I am delighted to be back in Peru to share to share God’s love and my gifts with the people of Collique!

After shopping for a couple of hours, I went back to the hotel. Later I met an old childhood friends for a wonderful Peruvian dinner. The day turned out to be a beautiful fall day, with a bright sunny sky, and a cool ocean breeze. Later that night, the rest of the group arrived at the airport and the real work started.